Just when you thought NFL commissioner Roger Goodell couldn't look any worse after the whole Ray Rice affair, a neutral arbitrator has ruled against Goodell's indefinite suspension of Rice, saying that Goodell had no new evidence to suspend him indefinitely after an initial two-game suspension. Barbara Jones, a former federal judge, ruled Friday that Rice is eligible to play immediately and that Goodell had "arbitrarily" suspended him for conduct the league already knew about and had already punished him for. Maybe if Goodell had taken a stand initially in the case and suspended Rice for more than two games, this wouldn't have happened. Now the speculation starts up: who will sign him? It depends on what kind of shape he's in going into December, and who wants to put up with the baggage Rice would bring to a new team.

Kosta Karageorge, a 6-5, 285-pound senior defensive tackle from Ohio State with a history of concussions, has not been heard from since Wednesday night when he texted his mother that he was sorry if he was an embarrassment but concussions had his head messed up. His family has filed a missing persons report with the police. "We're very concerned that he's not himself and that he maybe doesn't know what's going on," his sister Sophia told the Columbus Dispatch.

After the 49ers lost to the Seattle Seahawks 19-3 Thursday, Cassie Baalke, the daughter of the 49ers' GM, was a little upset, so she tweeted that the team's offensive coordinator should "take a hike, the 49ers don't want you no more." Baalke, a freshman in college, apologized to Roman Friday, as did her father, and her Twitter account was deleted. She might have a point though: San Francisco's offense is averaging just 19 points a game, 24th in the league. … Well, maybe some of you went shopping on Thanksgiving but a lot of you were watching the Lions crush the Bears Thursday as the game on CBS got its highest rating in 16 years.

You can vote for the best costume at the Manchester Road Race on http://www.ctnow.com/costume. The running Christmas tree, which basically looks like a real tree complete with ornaments and garlands, is a perennial favorite with everybody and underneath is Curt Hirsch, the town of Mansfield's zoning agent and a long-time runner. He has worn the tree at Manchester for years and has also been a regular in the costume contest at the Santa's Run 3.5-mile race coming up Dec. 7 in Glastonbury.

New England skiers and ski areas were thankful on Wednesday when many areas in Vermont and New Hampshire received up to a foot or more of fresh snow. In Vermont, Mt. Snow got 14 inches and Okemo got a foot, while Jay Peak, way up in northern Vermont, had 16 inches of snow as of Friday and it was still snowing.